Today's Devotional
June 10, 2009
Subject: Biblical Interpretation
2 Peter 1:20 "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation."
The book on African American Biblical Interpretation by Cain Hope Felder made a huge assumption when it stated that in the bible, "systematic treatments of race or racism were alien to the ancient biblical authors who knew of the greatness of ancient African blacks and their glorious cultures as reflected throughout the bible." In other words, the people who wrote the bible don't talk about race because they knew black people were really great. I have a whole lot of problems with this statement, but that comports with my fundamental problems with "African American Biblical Interpretation" itself. I don't think there is such a thing. So even though that whole tree is dead, I'll try to cut off the branch that talks about why there is no systematic treatment of race in the bible.
The answer is simply that the biblical authors, in the person of God Himself, don't treat race and racism as systematically as we might think, but that's not because they knew of the greatness of "ancient African blacks," it's because they were writing to prove the greatness of God.
Many have the view today that the way to fight race issues and racism is to focus on what the hater or racist is doing to the victim. The biblical authors being inspired by God saw God handle race issues, such as Miriam and Aaron's problem with Moses' Ethiopian wife, not as a means to lift up the people victimized, though that may happen or to punish the "haters" though that does happen, but they were writing the scriptures to show who God is and His absolute standard of right and righteousness.
The bible sets the standard of holiness and righteousness as it displays the works of the Almighty from creation to the present. We fight against defections from that standard as the men and women of God and not because we as a people, whatever race or ethnicity, are great and shouldn't be offended. Mr Felder writes in his book that Eurocentric biblical scholars have ignored the "compelling stories of African-Americans in the bible." While he may think "African Americans" have a compelling story, he should remember in the end that the bible is not about the compelling story of any people, it's about the compelling story of Jesus Christ and what He did and is doing for all people. That's how the bible should always be interpreted.
Carlen
